Destiny Udogie says he remembers playing against £25m Spurs player, he kept him quiet

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Destiny Udogie has claimed that he once kept Tottenham Hotspur winger Dejan Kulusevski very quiet while playing against him in Italy.

Udogie has been speaking to Football.London after joining up with the Spurs squad for his first pre-season at the club.

The 20-year-old put in an impressive second-half display against West Ham yesterday as he came off the bench to score a well-taken header.

Ange Postecoglou’s men fell to a 3-2 defeat against their London rivals, but there were plenty of positives to take from his first game in charge.

And Udogie was certainly a standout performer in yesterday’s friendly, despite playing a slightly different role.

He mainly operated as a wing-back during his time at Udinese and he’s been speaking about facing his new teammate Dejan Kulusevski in the past.

Udogie on facing Kulusevski

Speaking to Football.London, Udogie reflected on playing against Kulusevski while the wingers was at Juventus.

“Yeah I know him from Italy, Juventus,” he said. “I played against him in his last season.

“I kept him well [covered] so…”

The outlet notes that Kulusevski endured a tough game against the youngster just a couple of weeks before he sealed a loan switch to Spurs in January 2022.

He was forced off at half-time after he had struggled to get into the game, with Udogie playing the full 90 minutes.

Kulusevski endured a difficult campaign last time out as he struggled for form after the turn of the year.

Spurs still moved to snap him up permanently this summer though as he completed a £25 million switch from Juve.

The Swede was exceptional during the second-half of the 2021-22 campaign under Antonio Conte and he will be hoping to rediscover his best form with Postecoglou in charge.